Mindshare Pumpkin Carving Competiton

Yesterday we had a pumpkin carving competition at work...and with a certain female member of my team wanting some morale support, I agreed to enter with her...

Now, for the last week, not only have we been planning media, but also how to carve our pumpkin.  We had a few concepts (not knowing the size or quality of pumpkin we were being given)... and I liked the witch idea, using props, until someone pointed out that the nylon hair was a fire risk!  So, we went for the Punkin.. get it?   

I was chief scooper and got very very messy carving out the middle (and even got a sore hand from the spoon, until we remembered the pumpkin carving kit I bought in Woolies last weekend) and have to hand over all creativity and  carving to Izzie, who created the masterpiece (but I did suggest the coffee stirer teeth and hair!).  

At 4pm, the judges announed the winners... Two categories

1) Best Collective (we are in 4 groups at Mindshare, a bit like school house and there were 10 pumpkins carved per house and put on display)

2) Best Single Pumpkin

The results..

1) Our collective 'Fresh' (a bit like your house at school) came first - YIPPIE!  

2) Izzie and I got  very excited when we were in the final 5 finalists singled out for the 'overall' best pumpkin, yet sadly this wasn't to be and another 'Fresh'member won the overall prize.

Still, not to mind, we got 1000 points for out team today, a special mention in the results email and had loads of fun, so not a bad day in the office after all!

I SO don't want to be in the office...

...right now...I *knew* I should have taken the day off!

Roll on home time!

Oh, the links are just below this post if you came here hoping to fend off Friday afternoon boredom...think of me, dreaming of exploring a post-apocalyptic Washington DC while I do the accounts, won't you... ;)

Fink's Links #37

Almost weekless, again...! Just the weekend left now to keep us from running out of time - fear not though - just as the sun rises out of the oceans each day, if the proper rituals are followed then we'll have a nice fresh week to look forward to (when this one has finished playing with us), so I'd better get on with my little part of the magic and note down what I found this week seething in teh tubes(sic)...

Lets get ourselves off to a start with the birth of a new meme (I've seen it on at least 6 forums already as a reply to a sensible question - to much hilarity - so you may as well prepare yourselves)...

Now to a nice taxing (and equally random) segway by looking at "The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever (apparently it is possible to solve in 2 questions - if your brain is the size of a planet and you have plenty of time to think about it)...

If you still have any thinking power left after that, check out this excellent talk by Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: "Apes that write, start fires and play Pac-Man"...

Criggo - A blog of amusing (mostly American) newspaper clippings... ;)

Check out some funny chess variants.... ;)

Next lets explore some amazing Mexican crystal caverns with National Geographic Magazine...

Time for a nice bit of urban exploration now, this time abandoned airfields (including the odd space shuttle)!

Discover how the other half drinks...somehow, I just can't rationalise the fact that anything enjoyed so temporarily can be worth anything like that much money, but hey, I'm not super rich...! ;)

A rather funny/cruel (and a little profane) T-Shirt (although some parts of the population won't get it)...

Retro photography now, with some new/old Rolleiflex lookalike 35mm Cameras from Japan (available in some rather funky colours)...not sure I could ever go back to film cameras now!

Check out an excellent opportunity to "take years off your life"...

...and last (but not least) a double-edged "Mens room fail"...(funny for two reasons if you are keeping up with your Memes)... ;)

So that's it for another week, there will, no doubt be more next week (assuming everyone else completes their rituals) and if you need proof that it works then you can see all the previous weeks links here...now go outside and play... ;)

Happy Birthday VodQueen

La la la la la la la .. 

Do Rei Me..... 

(just warming up so we are in fine singing voices)..

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear VodQueen

Happy Birthday to you..

You'll have to come around for a celebratory drink one night.. we have a new bottle of Vod in!

Enjoy your trip to Devon.

;o) 

Seety.co.uk vs Street View - Virtual London Walk

Thought I would check these guys out as they made the Metro newspaper...they are offering a virtual walk (using a Google Maps API) around some areas of London (they claim to driven about 1000km of London streets taking just over 170000 pictures as they were going along), and the result (if a little slow and clunky) is still quite impressive...it's just a shame that Google themselves are already in the process of doing exactly the same but for most of *England* for their Street map project...and if you compare the two...well...no contest really...the google interface is lightning fast, the pictures load immeditaely, scroll quickly and effortlessly and when you move they even merge into one another to create a reasonable impression of progression... ;)

But then Google's offering isn't online yet...so this is all we have at the moment if you do fancy a virtual walk around town...

Cue a slew of people finding pictures of themselves that they don't want appearing on the internet (and the odd mysterious artifacts)...

There and Back again - Earlswood to Canary Wharf

So last night wasn't too bad, with a bit of digging around I discovered that they have put on an extra (what they call) "semi fast" train (i.e. not "fast" meaning direct, but not a "stopping service" either) at just past six from London Victoria...

I zoomed from the office on the dot of close of business and legged it down to the Jubilee line (platform couldn't have been much busier, but when the train came we all managed to pile on somehow), changed at Westminster for the Circle and District line and arrived with about 5 minutes to spare - looking at the ravening hoard on the main concourse I decided to take a gamble and went for the mini display near the platforms where Redhill trains normally depart, as it's that much closer (so more chance of a seat)...as I waited, so a couple of business men were taking bets on whether it would leave from 18 or 19 ("It's got to be platform 19") and of course (as always happens at Victoria, and I had honestly forgotten) everyone broke into a run towards Platform 15 when it popped up, causing our friend who was poised to run through the crowd to the right to be left standing...I got my seat (phew) just starting to get comfortable when an announcement blared out "Apologies Ladies and Gentlemen, but there has been a mistake" (Oh No!) "this service will now not be calling at Purley"...queue a load of gasps and swear words and about a third of the people on my carriage got off again, making space for the desperate folks running up the train looking for space to clamber aboard...

Anyway, got to Redhill and they have actually got things rather well arranged there - from the plentiful "Here to help" staff in HVJs to the proliferation of very clear signs to the replacement buses -

- which didn't stop zooming past as I was waiting for Flyingpops to buy her ticket to Birmingham for her meeting today...

This morning we awoke to find that snow/hail had fallen overnight (the first time this has happened in October, in the London area since 1934), so it was a bit of a mad dash to get the car scraped and defrosted, then of course the *only* train I can get into London from Earlswood in the morning had a technical fault (probably the same one the car had) and was about ten minutes late (and totally packed when it arrived - managed to score a seat at East Croydon though), got into Victoria at about 0825 (pretty good!) - District and Circle was fine (took the secret entrance at Victoria to miss the crowds - shhh!) and then had to wait for about 12 minutes at Westminster for a Jubilee line train...

I *just* made my desk before 9am...

Certainly not loving it, but thus far I have *just* managed to keep to semi-normal commuting times (thanks only to these sparce semi-fast trains though)...anyway, only 5 more journeys to go before things should return to normal (wish me luck)...

Engineering works and disruption - Redhill to Coulsdon South

All the fun of the "fare" today...there are *week* long engineering works on the line that goes from Redhill to Coulsdon South meaning *all* trains from our area to London Bridge have been completely cancelled...two alternatives are left, (neither of them are particularly attractive) -

1 - Bus to Redhill, wait for a replacement bus service to Purley (and there are terrible road works along there that we discovered on Timmy's stag do), wait at Purley for a train to East Croydon, then wait at East Croydon for a service to London Bridge - estimated journey time - how long is a piece of string...?
2 - Drive to Earlswood as usual (wade through the crowds of people who have come from Redhill that aren't usually Earlswood passengers), wait on the wrong platform (no sign to tell us, thanks) for a train to Victoria (which is the wrong side of London completely for the Docklands), forget trying to find a seat and just look for any tiny space to crush into), this train then has to go the wrong way down the track, wait until nothing is coming (took about ten minutes this morning) and then sneak onto the Gatwick Express line (which is not part of the engineering works), get off at Victoria (where 3 of the entrances to the tube were closed today thanks to overcrowding by all the extra people trying to use it), get the District line to Westminster and then change onto the Jubilee line to complete my journey...

We did option two...and somehow, this total hash of a journey managed to get me into work about fifteen minutes earlier than usual...go figure...!

On the way home it's *five* separate stages on the railway alone (including the replacement bus through the road works), and the two tube journeys unless I can get on the train out of Victoria that leaves at 1710...somehow I get the feeling that this isn't going to be a very enjoyable week...

Fink's Links #36

Cool, it's Friday again! Woo hoo! Without any further preamble lets get on to the links (it's a really good mix this week) -

Firstly those unstoppable Japs are at it again with the "Tuttuki Bako Box", yes, if your lifelong dream has been to poke a virtual panda, your wish has just been granted...! ;)

A picture entitled "It's worth the extra $3.05"...I beg to differ, leave the restaurant NOW!

"You fell asleep watching a DVD"...do we really need a simulator...?

Play a little game of "Guess the film from it's Polish poster" - surprisingly difficult!

Watch some very impressive time-lapse tilt-shift videos by artist Keith Loutit...

"One Friday in April, 1968"...what one teacher did to educate America about racism after the assassination of Martin Luther King...you can watch a TV documentary about it on that site also...

The world without us (an interactive timeline)...

A very pretty "World sunlight map"...(almost up to date)...

Some more urban exploration, this time (rather forced "art" in the shooting style this time though I'm afraid, urban exploration should be a bit more gritty) an abandoned island castle...

CNET decides it's going to have a go cracking open the new iPod Nano...(not very carefully)...

Next check out a dutch "splat rug"...(*raises left eyebrow in Spock fashion*)...

I actually really want one of these - the aerogarden - a compact home, indoor hydroponics/lighting system...

...and finally a rather good "Payment fail"...

More links next week and previous weeks links are in this direction... ;)

Nokia Headphones - New heights of embarrasment

My love/hate relationship with my Nokia N73 continues - it's managed to learn a a new trick now, a very, very annoying one...the other day I was merrily continuing my journey through the top 100 classical tunes of all time when I arrived at London Bridge station, tutted slightly at the reduced gate entry for the Jubilee line but joined in the scrum, suffering some inevitable gentle knocks/the odd rucksack in the face/briefcase in the shins...as I shuffled slowly forwards though the neatly dressed queue, the track I was listening to drew to a jolly (kettle drum filled) conclusion and there was a short pause while the gremlin in the phone threw his newspaper to the floor and scrambled to flip the tiny record over...oddly the next track was of noticeably worse quality, but I shrugged and turned the volume up a notch or two (nearing maximum), got to the barrier and slipped in my season ticket and began my two escalator descent into the bowels of London...

The platform was quite busy, I had to wait for around five minutes, surrounded by a crush of fellow commuters but eventually a train with enough room arrived and I "twister"'ed my way into a fairly comfortable position (i.e. one with a good amount of head room and minimal back pain)...as we pulled away from London Bridge (after a couple of attempts by the driver to get the doors to shut without any limbs poking out) I started to notice a young couple peering up at me through the forest of clinging arms, talking quietly and giggling (and then looking embarrassed at themselves as they noticed me noticing them with my slightly confused "is this *really* a laughing matter?" expression)...and then one of my ear buds fell out (as they have a habit of doing) and it immediately became apparent that for the last 10 minutes, not only had I been enjoying Mozart's Klavierkonzert (and whatever had been on before that, and maybe before that) I had also been broadcasting it at full volume through the (excellent) handset speaker to all of those around me...*sigh*...

Face+Palm...(still, at least this time it was pretty far from the worst thing I could have been listening to)...

Free Thameslink season ticket holder

In a happy piece of good timing, yesterday I was the lucky recipient of a brand new (if a little garish) season ticket holder, courtesy of Thameslink, which is nice, because my last free season ticket holder (from the FT, in the ultimate goodie bag) was starting to get a bit tatty...this was also a little odd, as when First decided to buy Thameslink they spent a huge amount of time and money (and actually it wasn't even that long ago) changing the name and the livery of the service from Thameslink to "First Capital Connect"...so a rainbow coloured branding reversal seems to be taking place (Thameslink was a much better name anyway IMHO)...

So what was this actually all about? Opening up the tiny folded sheet tucked inside revealed something that put a bit of a (cruel) smile on my face - a happy-clappy season ticket holder in exchange for massive disruption to services until around 2015 due to underground works, crossrail works, platform works, track works, new trains (with aircon - gasp! Only had them for 10 years on the other lines!) etc. etc. etc. (absolutely none of which is going to change the fact that it's a one up, one down single line for much of their track, any problem along that bit of the line and the entire service grinds to a halt)...so actually it's just another load of reasons to give thanks and praise every day for not having to even touch that service with a barge pole...

At the Mountains of Madness - movie confirmed!

This is just a *complete* dream come true...(well, actually that should probably read "nightmare come true" thanks to the subject matter involved)..."Hobbit" director Guillermo del Toro (of "Pans Labyrinth" fame) has finally managed to get financing to film his movie based on Lovecraft's classic story "At the Mountains of Madness", he was originally trying to get it all moving back in 2006...I had feared it would never happen as at the time he was quoted as saying "The studio is very nervous about the cost and it not having a love story or a happy ending, but it's impossible to do either in the Lovecraft universe", which at the time filled me with equal amounts of respect (for his integrity), joy (that someone actually talented was going to try and faithfully tackle a Lovecraft tale on the silver screen) and total dispair (that as a result of trying to be true to the piece it probably wasn't ever going to see the light of a projector bulb)...

I now await this movie with fevered anticipation (and an appropriate amount of twitching)...

Deep Hollywood voice - "Millenia after the Eldar abandoned their hidden cyclopean city in the frozen wastes of Antartica, their alien shuggoth slaves live on...hulking in the dark...and they are pretty tired of the taste of penguins"...(although on reflection the studio will probably come up with a slightly better tag line... ;)

Getting into Classical Music

So last week, frustrated by total lack of decent signal for "Classic FM" in practically every situation when I might wish to listen to it (mostly commute), I decided to get hold of some portable classical music of a more "on demand" (and non-wireless) nature...Simple, one might think...however, it proved to be a bit more of a problem than I originally anticipated - there is a collossal amount of classical music available, and it is of distinctly variable quality (beauty is in the ear of the beholder and all that), so where on earth does one start?

I decided I would begin my quest completely at random with a 3 CD collection called "Beethoven - Piano Concertos (Pollini - Abbado)"...it took me a couple of days to get through it all, I recognised very little of it, I also (unfortunately) enthusiastically liked very little of it either...with a bit of (half-hearted) repetition some of the good bits of the compositions started to pop into my mind when it was being otherwise idle (over the weekend, that sort of thing)...but largely, I judged myself to have made a rather dissapointing choice, and thus an inglorious first foray...

Attempt two faired only a little better as I then, rather foolishly, rushed to the complete opposite end of the scale and picked up a VA release called "The Top 100 Masterpieces of Classical Music 1685-1928"...while the first couple of tracks were interesting and new it then descended rather quickly into track after track that probably should have been titled "The Top 100 Masterpieces of Classical Music 1685-1928 that you are already sick of hearing because they have been ruthlessly battered to death and subsequently dumped in a stream by the Advertising Industry"...and although I'm only on track 58, the horrifying conclusion I'm starting to uncomfortably and uncontrollably slide towards is that all the really good and catchy bits of Classical music are already down there - and starting to decompose - waiting to be discovered by someone that was "just out walking their dog"...and who will react as I did - with some revulsion...

I'd love to be wrong...any suggestions?

(Update - Duo Des Fleurs does sort of work on the escalators in Cabot Square)...

Fink's Links #35

So another week reaches the end of the conveyor belt of reality and topples into the abyss, my nano-tube web of goodness did manage to snare a morsel or two though, just before it fell in (phew!) -

Firstly lets have a little walk around Jay Walker(internet entrepreneur)'s library (well worth the visit - "the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride")...

Now lets visit the illegal labour camps of Dubai - ("We need slaves," my friend says. "We need slaves to build monuments. Look who built the pyramids - they were slaves.")

Check out one or two rather "over-the-top" Halloween decorations...

"Do not calculate all the digits of Pi in Binary"...

"Boy, 14 posed as female spy to arrange his own murder"...

See a slideshow of some of the best entries in the "Wildlife photographer of the year" competition for 2008...

Having a Gangsta party? You'll certainly be needing some AK-47 Bullet-shaped ice cubes...quite 'cool' actually...(har har har)...ahem...whatever next...? ;)

Well, next, as it happens, a pencil that makes music as you write or draw?

...Carcade system uses a webcam to turn the enviroment outside the car into a game environment...and to think I used to just use my imagination...

Check out the *incredible* lego model "Zombie Apocafest 2008" (looks like they have introduced a couple of new brick shapes since my day)...!

...and finally a hilarious Good news fail and (head-shaking in disbelief) "Cow curiosity fail"...

More links next week and previous weeks links can be found here... ;)

Free Lego from the Daily Mirror!

STOP PRESS - DON'T MISS THIS FREEBIE - this is payback, because I know I go on all the time about the myriad of free things that seem to get thrown at us at Canary Wharf - everything from raw spuds to heaps of chewing gum (and sweat-bands inbetween), and I'm extremely grateful for each and every one of them (more to the point I have actually adopted some brands as a result thus cementing my appreciation with rather more tangible cold, hard cash)...but this one is a complete no brainer...absolutely heaps of free Lego (in the run up to Christmas too), and I'm sure we all have at least one set of tiny hands not too far away that might appreciate a few extra bricks to play with at this (albeit embryonic) festive time of the year...a rough estimate (from a parent not too far from me in the office) puts the combined offering at about thirty-five quids worth of kit - for FREE...which is an excellent Christmas gift in anyone's book, especially with belts being tightened around the globe...

Anyway, if you want a sneak peek, check it out here, and all you need to do to get the lot (and I recommend going for the box set I caught a glimpse of, if you can, as it looks that much more impressive) is to collect the vouchers (starting on Saturday)...you can get the individual bits if you like too btw, you don't have to save up for all of them, oh and apparently it contains a play mat and some stickers too (as a little bonus)...so there you go, a nice freebie (actually a much better one than I have ever picked up on the street)... ;)

Stephen Fry in America

I had the pleasure yesterday of being lured into catching up (via BBC iPlayer) with watching the first episode of the extremely entertaining new show "Stephen Fry in America" by first discovering a small excerpt of the accompanying text on Mr Fry's blog...and I actually think it was the right way round to do it...As the episode played, I had the privilege of knowing what was going through his head as each experience unfolded (including being able to chuckle as I recalled the odd "embellishment", shall we say?)...interestingly (and somewhat obviously) the TV show, while highly enjoyable and decidedly educational in it's own charming way, in this case seems like just an executive summary for the rich detail, measured insight and beautifully woven prose in the book - which I have made up my mind to buy...as in this case it's clearly the richer element of the pairing (and not just a limp money spinning ploy as is occasionally the case)...

Oh, and funnily enough, this isn't actually the first "Stephen Fry incident" of the week either...On Tuesday I discovered (via Big Blue), that Mr Fry twitters...so I thought I would add myself to his adoring fan list (as you do) and tune in to his tweets from time to time...it was only when checking my gmail a little later in the day that I noticed the update which had arrived shortly afterwards..."Stephen Fry is now following you on twitter"...wow...

I'd better make an effort to be interesting then...! :0

A hour and a half for lunch

As a result of a recent desk move (into a new department) for the team I work in, my hours in the office have just been modified...instead of formally working 0930-1730hrs we have all now signed forms saying we are happy to work 0900-1730, not actually much of a change for me, as I am usually to be found slumped at my desk from 0845 onwards, but what it does mean is that we now get an hour and a half for lunch...so actually a really good deal for me as I was putting in the hours anyway, it's just a nice bit of recognition (and that can be a somewhat rare thing in this day and age)...

This would all be great, apart from two things - firstly, public transport (since the change) has completely conspired against me, Monday morning the tube was closed so I had to run to the river and wait ten minutes for a boat to turn up (which made me 10 minutes late and earned me a worried phone call from the office while I was in the lift on the way up to the 20th floor - just had to happen on the first day I guess), and today it was reduced gate entry at London Bridge (and when I eventually got down there) the platform was rammed - had to watch two trains leave before I finally squeezed, breathless, into a small, sweaty space on one...just managed to get to my desk on time by pushing my way through the crowds and hurrying through the rain before the clock chimed the start of work...don't really want to be getting on an even earlier train into town (to be on the safe side) as that would mean getting up about half an hour earlier (and we get up quite early enough as it is) just going to have to hope things get back to normal pretty quickly...the second thing (and this isn't really a moan) is that an hour and a half is a *hell* of a long time to fill...I mean, I could now watch an entire (average length) film...or two TV episodes...also it's a bit odd - if I go up and sit in the restaurant everyone else vanishes at 2pm and I'm left sat on my own, same if I pop out to the shops (as I did yesterday to browse the new Waterstones for opening bargains), the place goes from "Bluewater at Christmas" style-chaos to "Dawn of the Dead" tumbleweed-strewn desolation in the space of five minutes...

It's just going to take a bit of getting used to I guess, after an entire lifetime of hour-long lunches...*shrug*...(still, it makes the afternoon go pretty quick)! ;)

Xbox 360 Christmas line-up 2008

Just had a quick check of the Christmas release schedule and there are a truly horrifying number of games that I really want (even though I still haven't completed MOH:Airborne from last Christmas (but that's largely because the minute I start playing anything with a lot of banging noises I end up getting an earful from Flyingpops)...it's odd, because there has been such a *lack* of decent games for the 360 for soooooo long, suddenly to be facing (caveat - final reviews/demo play aside - as there could be some unexpected lemons) *seven* "must-have" titles this festive season it's just scaring the (financial) willies out of me...so let's run down the (amazingly impressive) list without further ado -

24th Oct
Fable II (*loved* Fable, despite it not living up to Peter's dream hype, both the times I played it, can't wait to do the same this time - eh chicken lovers?)
Far Cry 2 (sounds like the saving system might have spoiled this one a bit for the console versions, but still rabidly anticipating my trip back to the perfect tropical archipelago, even though it is unfortunately populated by the raving offspring of Dr Moreau...yep, this one is going to annoy Flyingpops no end... ;)
Dead Space (Well...maybe, I'll have to check the reviews, but it's been a long time since I've forced Flyingpops to actually get out of the bath to find out what I have been screaming in terror about - a certain room in Doom 3 - in fact)...

31st Oct
Fallout 3 (YAY!!!!!!! The latest and greatest from the perfect coding team at Bethesda Softworks, it almost makes me want to get Oblivion out again, but I fear that I wouldn't have a wife any longer if that did happen... ;)

14th Nov
Call of Duty - World at War (looking *really* good, if it's anything like as polished as COD 4 then we are in for a real treat, unfortunately it's another bang-bang game though)
Banjo Kazooie - Nuts and Bolts (RARE...well, what can I say - it's not just "hit and miss" with that lot, but "total classic and doggy-do-on-the-shoe" so only time will tell)...the last (proper) Banjo Kazooie I played was back on the Nintendo 64 and if it's *anything* like as good as that...put it this way - Christmas will certainly have come early, although not for Gruntilda)...

21st Nov
Tomb Raider Underworld (Formulaic? Yes...Cliched? Yes...Unmissable? Damn it...yes! Please leave out the silly motorbike sections this time though!)

So all in all we are staring into the primed double barrels of total total gaming joy! In fact, probably enough joy to take me through the whole of next year without needing any other games at all! The down side? If I bought all of this lot on release day it would end up costing me almost £280...! So it's either trade-in time (luckily I have a big of a pile of "completes" at home), fingers crossed for Christmas presents (although with the "global financial crisis" that's actually (this year) probably a non-starter as we all tighten our belts), select a couple of prime titles and be happy with those, or just wait until the prices come down...although with the quality of this seasons offerings that's not going to happen for a *long* time...

I'm pleased...I really am - it's been so long since there was actually a choice in the matter...but "want want WANT"!!!

Honestly, I've not felt like this since I was young enough to early adopt console hardware! Damn it... ;)

Wings World War 2 Aviation Museum, Redhill Aerodrome

Finally got around to checking out the museum practically sitting on my doorstep, the "Wings Aviation Museum" based at Redhill Aerodrome (this thanks only to my folks for paying a surprise visit and whisking me over there on a whim)...and I am rather glad they did - admittedly it's not the biggest museum in the world (we had to look pretty closely at everything to use up a full hour), as such the entry fee of £5 did seem just a little on the expensive side (although that price did get you a free cup of tea or coffee at the cafe alongside the runway, should you fancy one)...and take into consideration that it's being run as a registered charity by voluntary workers and it doesn't seem like too much to pay for keeping alive an important part of our history...

The four rooms out the back of the hangar hold some extremely interesting objects (and occasionally the stories that accompany them, where research has borne fruit)...

The first room you enter is the largest, containing some real goodies, including (something I had never even heard of before) an unexploded (and I am guessing made-safe) Butterfly bomb, they apparently used to flutter down and get stuck in trees or snag on power lines causing untold chaos -

- quite cruelly the Nazis used to paint them bright yellow too, so curious kids would wonder what they were and set them off...

A few bits of V2 that somehow managed to stay in one piece (and in remarkably good condition) when they slammed into East Croydon at several thousand miles an hour -

- An interesting map of the local area showing where all the various groups with war-time responsibilities were stationed -

- oh and this map was recovered from a crashed Nazi bomber - you can still see the navigators pencil markings if you look closely...much of the rest of the museum is dedicated to displays of horrifyingly tangled aircraft wreckage -


- with carefully marked out reasons why they aren't currently performing air show flybys...(for some of the aircraft they have even tracked down the crew and have presented information about their lives) -


- oh and apparently from all the various donated parts they are working on reconstructing a bomber cockpit (so they must have some bits and bobs in better condition than this lot lurking in the hangar -


- other things that caught my eye in their collection was a chaff package (aluminium strips jettisoned from aircraft to baffle radar) -

- detonators for various bombs (this one was for a 30lb Incendiary device) -



- all sorts of different shapes and sizes of ammunition (some in better condition than others) -

- an RAF Bomber Jacket (lovingly decorated by the owner) -

- some bomb fuse pins (donated by the guy that pulled them out, who had kept them as a souvenir)


- gas masks and posters -

- a Nazi flag found in a house in Merstham -

- even the menu for Christmas lunch when Redhill Aerodrome was an RAF base! One particularly good display is practically the entire history of one member of a Nazi bomber crew member, including his posessions upon his death and lots of his personal documentation, right down to a translation of the letter written to his next of kin saying he was merely missing in action and could have parachuted to safety (well, to the pitchforks of the home guard)...

Anyway, I've only really touched on what the museum has to offer (and they are constantly adding new material), it's definitely well worth a trip (especially if you are in the area anyway), plus you will come away with the warm feeling that you have done your part to support a charity and keep an important bit of local history alive...and then after your visit you can stop for a spot of lunch (with your free tea) in the Cafe and watch people learning to fly helicopters or light aircraft...a very pleasant morning...

Fink's Links #34

Another week has slipped through our collective fingers (and marched us one step closer to Christmas cheer!), however, it's been a bit of a light week for interesting tube matter, but what I do have - Señor, está de calidad muy buena...and it's mostly all mind-expanding stuff (not so much silliness, which will please some people, I'm sure), so let's get stuck in -

Firstly (and you may or may not have seen this project kicking around, but) it looks like Darwin@Home has finished it's early attempts to use distributed computing to "evolve" simple forms of movement by random mutation, watch the results of the experiment here (with commentary)...

Enjoy some incredible shots of striped icebergs (they look like they belong in a sweet packet labelled "ice cool mints")... ;)

Read about the man who stuck his head into a particle accelerator (really) and learn a bit about "Science towns" in the former USSR while you are at it...

Amazing remote cam pic called "snarling wolf over dinner"...(not for the faint hearted)...

How an engineer folds t-shirts...someone should sell these things!

An awesome "then and now" look at how technological improvements at NASA over the last 50 years have opened up our view of the Sol system in incredible ways... :)

Peep from behind your fingers (with an "ouch" expression on your face) as some Estonians enjoy their popular national sport - Kiiking...

Ever wondered how your mobile phone network actually functions? How that voicemail arrived even though the phone never rang? Why the battery on your handset runs out much quicker when you are in the middle of nowhere...? Really truly why you aren't allowed to use your mobile on a plane? All the answers are here...

...and finally for your delectation a very tasty "Ramadan fail"...

More links next week and previous weeks links can be found here... ;)

Ouch... :(

Been having a bit of a bad time of things the last couple of weeks, ever since the wedding actually...lots of aches and pains, not just the normal seasonal ones (as the nights draw in and temperatures plummet), just some gentle reminders that I need to take things really easy with my poor old knees - yesterday was particularly bad, I made it into town okay (limping a little), but by lunchtime I really didn't want to get up from my chair...at home time I was absolutely dreading what was to come but somehow (grim determination alone I think), with much clinging onto escalators and swearing, I managed to get back to Redhill where I surrendered and caught a taxi home...(I'd long ago missed the bus by the time I got down all those stairs at the station anyway)...

This morning things seem to be a lot better, I dosed up on the strong pain killers the doctor gave me the last time this happened when I got home last night and I've topped them up with some Ibuprofen tablets, my magic binding grip is in my rucksack (just in case) and I have one of my crutches with me to keep the weight off the leg that is currently playing up...oh and I staggered the commute to try and avoid the crowds, someone even kindly gave me the priority seat on the tube...! Got me into the office at about half seven and going to try and skip off a bit early this afternoon to avoid the 1730 crush...

Hate being like this...just have to remind myself that there are people a lot worse off than I am...

Green Canary Day - Cardboard Canary Wharf

More art, sorry to keep being so cultured, but I spotted this last week in the lobby of One Canada Square, it's called (ever-so-inventively) "Cardboard Canary Wharf" and was constructed by artist Nicky Burrell in order to help celebrate "Green Canary Day" (which actually seems to go on for two days, and is now in it's seventh year apparently), there were supposed to be a lot of other things going on in order to promote environmental friendliness, but this was the only bit that I managed to stumble upon (a number of them only taking place on Saturday or only between the hours of 10am and 3pm which kind of ruled my participation out)...

Still, quite a clever piece, I especially liked the little Jubilee Park, complete with tiny cardboard water features and trees...wouldn't have fancied making all those little windows on the buildings though...actually it looks like the artist got a bit tired of it too, the closer you get to the river the less detail seems to be in evidence... ;)

Wonder if it went in the recycling afterwards?

(only kidding ;)

Central Heating - On already...!

So much for the Indian summer! Apart from a minor blip (when Timmy and Gayle were lucky enough to have booked in to tie the knot) the weather really has been totally miserable, so much so that over the weekend we decided enough was enough (even though we are barely into October) and attempted to put the central heating back on (and not a minute too soon either, from what I hear there have been several frosty starts around town since)...and annoyingly, it wasn't the simplest thing in the world to actually do either, firstly we discovered that the batteries in the combined thermostat/scheduling device had flattened, and then, thanks to them being out of the machine for too long, all the settings vanished, so I had to re-learn how to configure it (and it has a rather frighteningly counter intuitive, instruction-free control panel)...still not sure it's entirely set up correctly as we didn't get heat until about 10am on Sunday, but yesterday morning it certainly worked - I awoke to a wonderfully warm house, content to wander to the bathroom in the all-together without risk of freezing my nether regions, very pleased also that the thermostat was placed in the stairwell, as the whole house was equally toasty when it came time to drag myself downstairs to make Flyingpops' coffee drink...a good thing too as I am temporarily unable to locate my dressing gown! ;)

Roll on Christmas (my favorite time of the year)... ;)

Testa Addormentata by Igor Mitoraj - Sculpute in Canary Wharf

Time for another little bit of culture, spotted this in Bank Street the other day, and my goodness did it grab my attention, at first glimpse I was convinced I was witness to a decapitated Statue of Liberty...and I know the US aren't quite pulling their weight at the moment (in the global economic sense) but I really did think that this was perhaps a step too far... ;)

Of course, on closer inspection it wasn't anything of the sort...as the sign below quickly told me this was a bronze cast made in 1983 by one "Igor Mitoraj" - a Polish artist who (interestingly) was born in Germany in 1944. Apparently it was first installed in Canada Square (where I would have had much more of a chance of stumbling over it earlier) but now it's outside number 40 Bank Street (if you fancy coming and having a look yourself, it's only two minutes walk from the tube)...

The most striking thing about it, for me at least, is it's completely classical look...a big dose of the surreal is added by it appearing to be just a small part of a much larger classical piece, left, as it were, in it's imperfect form, for later generations to wonder over...It's really very clever to juxtapose those two ideas - that this is a perfect, whole piece of post-modern art mimicking the remains of a damaged masterpiece...

Clever... ;)

Fink's Links #33

Damn, where did that week go? It's Friday again! So time for just a couple of goodies I've saved up from the tubes...

Firstly, how about the ultimate Christmas gift for the geek "Sam Fisher" wannabe in your life - affordable (like £50 afforable), high quality night vision goggles...and they really do work rather well by all accounts...those midnight trips to the portaloo when camping would never be the same again... ;)

An excellent selection of art inspired by "Star Wars Culture"...

A nice bit of grafitti entitled "In case of civil unrest"...

In need of some full-size Roman era siege weaponry? Look no further...!

Watch a crab riding his dinner around the ocean...cheeky sod!

"Doh!"

Google release a complete archive of their index of the internet dated January 2001, and working with the internet archive from that time (kudos to them), you can surf (pretty much) as if you had travelled back in time...no rick roll, no 4Chan, no Youtube, no iPod, no 9/11, no war on terror...what a different world it was... ;)

A really great way to end up being strip-searched at the airport...

Discover the truth of the matter in the case of the Wendys (awesome sounding, and looking) "Baconator" marketing photograph...lower lip starts to slightly tremble upon opening wrapper... :(

An extremely innapropriate Police union T-Shirt from Denver...

Enjoy an extremely addictive free online physics-based game called "Fantastic Contraption"...(write off a couple of hours before you click that link btw)...

A nice "Oh that's how big they are!" moment when man meets whale...

Read the facinating tale of how scientists Janzen and Hebert are working to solve the taxonomic impediment with a "genetic barcode"...next step - biological tricorder... ;)

...and finally a rather amusing "Seed fail"...

More links next week and previous weeks links can be found here... ;)

Free Lurpak (and spud) at Canary Wharf

Feels like it's been a while since I last got a freebie, but actually it was only on the 3rd of September, and to be honest, I have actually walked past a few offers I didn't fancy including a whole huge great big litre container of "innocent" branded orange juice (but only because there were so many in the office I was sick of it by the time I actually walked past the stall and had the opportunity to grab some), anyway, today at the Wharf was probably the largest stall we have seen since Del Boy paid a visit...and it was all down to Lurpak butter...they set up their own few market stalls and were handing out (with a cheery "Good Morning Sir/Madam") little brown paper bags -

- each containing a spud, some butter, a small recipe leaflet and some (in my case) pumpkin seeds, but other people reported getting garlic bulbs (which may have suited me better)...

Anyway, I'm Flyingpops will be thankful for a free feed courtesy of the tiny yellow musician... ;)

How to tell if you have a fake pound coin

So, since the story hit the news a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would keep my eyes open and see if I ended up getting palmed off with one of the 30 million (or approximately 2%) fake pound coins that are reported to be in circulation...I had a few pass through my hands that were definitely a "maybe" (but I couldn't be 100% sure) until I happened to be lucky(?) enough to get two identically dated Welsh-themed year 2000 pound coins - comparing the two, it was immediately clear that they had some considerable differences (you can click these pictures to zoom in much further if you like, I took them at quite high res) -

Firstly - looking at the front, you can see the fake coin (on the right) is a much lighter colour, the face image isn't centred properly, and lots of the detail, including many of the little dots around the edge are either blurred or missing completely...

Next step, carefully spin the coin over, flip it horizontally without turning it at all (this is important) you can see a similar lack of detail to the front, but most tellingly, the front and back of the coin are not perfectly aligned, the fake coin is close, but it's definitely off by a few degrees...a classic sign of the amateur mint...

Thirdly, turn the coin on it's side and examine the edge, you can see that not only is the fake coin's text irregular (check out the giveaway tiny "S" in a slightly different font) and wonky, it's also not even Welsh! If you are in any doubt at all, you can check out which edge corresponds with which front here in the Royal Mint Design Portfolio...some are obvious, like this example, others not so, also make sure the text is good and deep, and the lines running all along the edge are clearly defined...

Now comes the difficult part...As an academic/investigative exercise I've successfully identified that I have been given a fake coin. However, this does now mean I will be guilty of commiting a crime if I go ahead and spend it...So I think the lesson learned here is, as long as it looks convincing enough at first glance (when you are handed it), don't bother looking too much further (I don't really want a pile of fake coins cluttering up the house)...Sometimes ignorance is bliss...

>:S

Books etc. closing down in Canary Wharf

Wah...(well sort-of-wah)...spotted the other day that my nearest book shop in Canary Wharf, was closing down! I don't buy a huge number of books in book shops (as it's so much cheaper online), but if I've had a bad day, or if I've finished a book off and need something new for the way home, or if I'm off on holiday and need to quickly stock up, or even the odd present - suffice it to say it's saved my bacon on a couple of occasions (in a number of ways) and is near enough to not eat too much into the commute...so you can understand I was just a little bit upset when I saw the signs, but just not upset enough to run in and buy a load of 50% off books with a smile on my face...

Today I am wondering what on earth they bothered for...another shop is opening -but- it's a Waterstones (as you can clearly see if you click that picture and peer through the silver covering on the windows)...! Found a news story confirming it here...but the crazy thing is, they had the front doors open today, and when I peered in I noticed that they haven't even bothered to re-fit the store, it's exactly the same layout, same shelves, same tables...same books? Well, almost certainly not if they belonged to a different retailer, but I imagine the stocks arriving now won't be *much* different from those which populated them previously...

Rather a curious move...but not one I am going to question (as a consumer)...I'm just going to say "thanks for staying as a book shop"... ;)